Year: 2020

We have a constant pressure pump system serving our dairy. I spent the afternoon pulling the deep well pump and correcting a wire problem. Background: Pump is a 3hp motor connected to a 1.5 hp pump end on a 2 inch drop hose. Constant pressure controller is basically a variable speed controller. The brand of

One of the sad things of losing the farmland of the Rathdrum Prairie (or anywhere), and specifically family-scale farms, to housing development, is the loss of wildlife habitat. Our farm, located in Bonner County, Idaho, is habitat for an amazing list of critters. Since we moved onto the land in 2006, we have seen the

Last Friday, 10/09, we received two new cows from Iowa. They were purchased from Knapp Guernseys, very near Wisconsin. The reason for the purchase is that demand is outstripping supply, and right at the time of year that grass-fed cows naturally begin to produce less milk. Also, we have three good cows on pre-calving vacation.

At Pleasant Meadow Creamery, being in a western state, we learned long ago that a Wade Rain Wheel line is absolutely necessary to have green grazing 5 or six months per year. Prior to getting wheel lines, we would have the fields dry out in early August, and our solo cow would already be looking

Without giving us much in the way of notice, Darci calved yesterday evening at around sunset or before. This is a second calf for her. She had a bull. Normally, cows give us some advance notice, besides what the calendar is telling us, about their impending calving. Their udders will fill. Their tail heads will

September 7 – Labor Day – 2020 has brought us a severe windstorm with power outage in the AM hours that has seemingly knocked out power everywhere in our area. All our South stores are empty shelves and will be until tomorrow. We also lost one of our last remaining aspens – snapped off halfway

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National Public Radio’s Planet Money program recently did a 19 minute broadcast entitled Raw Milk Deal. They actually did a good job with it. We encourage you to give it a listen: https://www.npr.org/2020/02/07/803780511/episode-970-raw-milk-deal We, Paul and Debra, had a similar start to our Raw Milk Deal here in North Idaho. It started with a family